Jogging with teenager….

Last night I discovered that there is no better motivator than to jog with someone who is 1/3 your own age. After watching my daughter in the “Living Stations” performance, I decided I still wanted to go for a walk. Mind you I had already gone for a walk on my lunch break and had spent 45 minutes at the gym. Not sure what has come over me lately, but it might have something to do with that exercise high that I mentioned in a previous post. Since the hubby was busy studying for class, I asked my teenage daughter if she’d go with me. She *shrugged* her shoulders and said ok. While we were in our first block I had told her that I’d like to jog every 3rd block. It is important to note here that she is in 7th grade and participates in cross country at the high school level. Last night when I made this request/suggestion I seemed to have forgotten the aforementioned fact.

So we proceeded with my plan. We walked the first two blocks then jogged the third. We repeated this process for about 1.5 miles, which is our halfway point. We get to the halfway point and I’m thinking to myself that this isn’t too bad. Yeah there were a few close calls with the ice that is still on the ground in random places, but overall I was feeling really good. Then it happened, we turned around to head back and the kid decides to take off like a cheetah. OK so maybe not a cheetah, but she was going much faster than she had been during the first 1.5 miles. During those lovely moments when we were able to walk and not RUN she was able to shed some light on the subject. The increased speed is twofold. First, since she is a natural born runner, naturally she get’s the runners high and for her that kicks in around a mile or so. The second is a bit stranger. According to her, on the way back, she noticed her shadow in front of her when we were walking/jogging. I was thinking to myself WTF, because obviously she’s a young teenage so I couldn’t say it out loud plus I think my breathing would have gotten in the way, each time we’d start our next running portion. I must have given her a strange look because she turns to me and says, “Duh I’m chasing my shadow”. Huh?!?! What does that mean? I guess there is this little switch in her brain that makes her want to catch up to her shadow, plus she thinks it looks funny when she runs. This was the secondary reason for the increase in speed. Obviously I should NOT have let her watch Peter Pan so many times when she was a small child. Who knew it was going to make her want to chase and catch her shadow and that I would have to pay for that decision physically. Although it was a bit of a challenge for me to complete the 3 miles with the running added, it was such an amazing high. Not only was I doing something amazing for myself, I also discovered another activity that my daughter and I can enjoy together.

I am so looking forward to tonight’s walk/jog/run!!!